Posts tagged ‘Top Chef’

First, a reminder. The 6th season of Bravo’s Top Chef has begun! I realize I’m a little late in mentioning it, but I just got to watch the premiere today. Las Vegas looks like it’s gonna be a good season. I’m not going to do recaps or reviews this season, but I highly recommend these blogs if you want commentary:

I am painfully aware that this blog has been lately lacking the one thing it’s really supposed to be about. Cooking. I know I’ve had a million excuses (end of school, getting married, getting settled, moving…) for why that has been the case. Lame. This is supposed to be a blog primarily about my learning to cook healthy and meat free.

Starting this week (aka tomorrow) I am going to start trying out new recipes. A lot of my cooking lately has been things I know are safe because I’ve already shared them on the blog. This week’s menu includes several recipes I’ve never tried before. I will share the results here. Hopefully that’ll make both reading and writing more interesting. Plus dinner around here’s getting dull.

So, tonight’s the finale of Top Chef Season 5. I stopped writing on it because I was enjoying live blogging with the folks over at Endless Simmer too much, but I thought sharing a few thoughts about the season would be appropriate before it ends tonight.

Favorite Episode: Episode 6: Twelve Days of Christmas
Honestly, I just thought it was fun. It was different, it was tricky, it required a lot of creativity. Could you come up with a dish inspired by “nine ladies dancing”?Episode 8: Down on the Farm
Yes, they shop at Whole Foods every week, but it was especially nice to see the contestants work it out on the farm, using only the meat and produce found there.

Least Favorite Challenge: Episode 11: Le Bernardin

No offense to Eric Ripert, of course, but I never did warm to this challenge. Yes, it takes tremendous skill to cook Ripert’s food and it’s a huge honor to cook in the kitchen of Le Bernardin, but it still seems to me that the ability to recreate someone else’s food isn’t one of the most important marks of a good chef. The contestants should be exhibiting their creativity, not Ripert’s.
Also, not a fan of the product placement quick fire challenges featuring Dr. Pepper and Quaker Oats.

Favorite Contestant: Initially, I started out really liking Hosea, but the Hosea/Leah “relationship” put me off a bit (or a lot…) as did his attitude and food in general. As the season progressed, I began rooting more and more for Carla. “Hootie hoo!”

Least Favorite Contestant:Leah, for her seeming lack of personality and motivation to stay on the show, plus the aforementioned Hosea thing. Stefan annoyed the daylights out of me, but he proved he’s one of the best cooks of the bunch.

Prediction:I would love to see Carla win. But I’m suspecting it’s going to be Stefan.

Ezra Klein of the Internet Food Association posted a great story this morning about the fact that Tom Colicchio, chef and head judge on “Top Chef” saved a life last night.

In addition to the fact that Tom is amazing (and is now also a hero), I’m a bit jealous that Ezra Klein got to attend Art.Food.Hope, the pre-inaugaration benefit to aid the hungry in DC. If I ever manage to get any sort of audience for this blog, I am going to start finding my way to these sorts of events. You should check out the chefs, artists and authors invited–I would have been speechless (which is perhaps why I wasn’t invited).

Too much coffee is linked to hallucinations (luckily, this has not been researched with tea, to my knowledge)

Food Techie’s list of Food Trends for 2009 including comfort food, less protein and more food by mail

Finally, Bravo is apparently developing a show called Top Chef: Masters which will feature “some of the brightest stars in the food world” in the usual Top Chef competition format. I’m inclined to think that the brightest stars have better things to do, but I’m staying tuned for more details–I’ll give anything with the Top Chef name a fair try.